Report e.p.a. Training Course Youth Poverty and Violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?
Thessaloniki 19th - 26th May 2010
with the support of the
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
welcome and warm up
Ms Maria Joni (3 rd from the left) , Se cret ar y Ge ne ra l of Thes sa lo ni ki Periphery came to welcome us. We started with a “who is who? ” where everybody filled in a little in fo rm at io n ab ou t th em se lv es . Afterwards they st ick their photo on it and like a washin g line they are hu ng across the room where everyone ca n see everyone and consult the “Who is who?” when th ey have forgotte n where Hodei come s from or if yo u want to know th e name of the gi rl with the purple ha ir. On the back of the “Who is who? ” people can fin d m or e in de pt h in fo rm at io n an d together with the e.p.a. name badg e soon recognise pa rticipant from 24 countries!
At the beginning of our training seminar we started with lots of opportunities to socialise and to get to know each other. We played many name games and because of our creative and interactive process of introduction and getting to know each other we very soon found coffee breaks where something to look forward to and not to fear ...
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
get started
It is very important in an International gathering of colleagues from many countries to be able to present effectively and precisely their city, project, you ng people, issues being faced, con nection to the theme and photos to give a visual presentation . e.p.a. provided a poste r, which all partner gro ups prepared. Special questions wh ere “What we do in our project/ organisation...”, “We wo rk (and play) with …”, “If you come to our city as a tourist, we would like to show you ...”, “This is something very, very typical in our city:”, “If you come to play with us, you will see this ...”, “If they talk ab out violence in our local media it is often about …”, “To reduce youth violence we carefully ha ve to look at ...”.
Over three evenings sessions the participants presented their posters. This was very good in terms of everyone having an equal time to speak and be heard, to experience public speaking and then having it translated, but also to speak in English which was the mother tongue of only two delegations! Having 30 “A0-size” posters with amazing colour and creativity surrounding us in our working room gave us a confidence and “ownership” of the activity, which benefited enormously to the success of the training seminar.
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
food and music
ancient country We were very fortunate to be in the in Europe). We of Greece (whose flag is the oldest food: the meats, experienced some truly wonderful a delight to our the fish, the cheese, the salads were ugh, our ears taste buds and if that was not eno unmistakeable where given often (very loudly) the sound of Greek culture. to this musical We ourselves were not slow in adding ts from the delight with many improvised inpu not to forget the Balkan, the Irish, the Spanish and Russian “soul”.
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
a day out ... in the rain
when it rained For our excursion we picked the day, like cats and dogs etc. the beautiful This did not stop us visiting nt Olympus. mou of foot Thermaikós coastline at the the sea claimed Four intrepid Europeans run into from the photo see can they had enjoyed it as you wet, there was lly equa above. But as everyone was shoe and sock of lace disp an impressive engineering drying.
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
play works!
Play works ... in many ways! We organised three play action activities: in a city park, a Roma community and a shelter for refugee children and young people. It was an opportunity to see where and how and who with our Greek hosts work. It is always a wonderful experience to see colleagues from many countries sharing their favorite games and interacting with smiles and hugs with local young people and the local community. It was remarkable that many of the refugee children found someone to speak to them in their own language. The afternoon was filled with many happy smiles between the rain drops. And we even saw a rainbow!
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
play works!
Play is a very important methodological tool in the programme of e.p.a. activities. We do not believe in delivering long theoretical papers or academic researc h. e.p.a. approa ch is to create the conditions for people to share what they already know and receive lots of ideas of good practice through playful methods. This can be splitting the group into two halves, placing the parachute in the middle ... one person from each side sits in front of the parachute ... when it is dropped the first person who names the other person wins that person to their side. It’s a great and fun way to learn all names. Every session began with an “energiser”, so by the end of the week everybody went home with lots of ideas to use in their own work with their young people.
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
workshops
The main content of this week long International training course was the workshops. These were around our theme of "How can Human Rights be an antidote to Violence and Social Exclusion?". They usually began with an introductory element, followed by small group discussions or interactive activities, where everybody has a valued input. It was important to have plenty of material: pens, glue, scissors, papers etc. to sustain the high level of creativity, that was unfolded in these workshops.
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
workshops
Many of the workshops included performance events or role play or making things. Examples were “dressing” a child in Human Rights, three groups were given an outline of a child this they had to dress using concepts of Human Rights, Life, Love, Food, Play, Access, economic basis, education, etc. We also followed the history of human rights by role play of important events: the The Code of Hammurabi Iraq 2000 BC, the Charter of Cyrus 570 BC, Magna Carta 1215, the Bill of Rights 1688, Declaration on the rights of Man 1789, the Declaration of Independence 1791, Treaty of Paris 1814, the Geneva convention of 1864 and 1929, the Charter of the United Nations 1945, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. Our participants followed a great tradition and were a fine example of those through History, who have defended our Rights.
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
workshops
Participants split up into small groups to work on their workshop tasks. They developed “crazy ideas” for awareness raising campaigns together in an amazing spirit of cooperation and lust and creativity. It was an enlightening and encouraging experience for us all, when they shared their results with the plenum. An outline of the European Union ‘Youth in Action’ programme especially the support for International Youth exchanges was also presented and so the participants went away with not only effective tools in Human Rights education to combat violence and social exclusion, but concrete action and support to follow up in their work with young people. => www.ec.europa.eu/youth
e.p.a. Training Course • "Youth poverty and violence ... (how) can Human Rights be an antidote to Social Exclusion?" • Thessaloniki • 19th-26th May 2010
a day conference The final day of the e.p.a. Training Course was given over to a Conference, where we inv ited oth er Gre ek coll eag ues from The ssal onik i and bey ond to sha re our con clus ions and add to the bod y of information we had received duri ng the week. A keynote speech was give n by the Greek Ombudsman for Children’s Righ ts Mr. George Moschos. We then met in small groups to look at the issues raised, pool our experien ces and feedback to the whole meeting before bringing to a close an amazing wee k of a rain bow of idea s, a kale ido sco pe of imagination and profound friendshi p between 50 colleagues from 24 countries.
the Infrastructure, traffic and educational system is not suitable for people with disabilities Roma people do not officially exist, so they cant find work and children cant go to school Serbia
language poverty, because parents can’t speak german or/and parents don’t speak with their children Lack of team work ability, cooperation and sharing by youth Germany
Problems with people with mental illnesses Problems for poor people A poor education system
Just Play! The bricks that were presented and discussed. if you don’t have the up to date clothes you are seen as poor low self esteem, not having to courage to socialise in school properly, caused by bad schooling, feeling stupid UK
lot of trash on the streets and sometimes in the woods, no street lights it is dangerous to go to some places at night polluted rivers, water from tab is not good for drinking expensive public transport especially for students Russia
Bosnia
to get good results at school you have to follow the ”frontiers”… these are private evening schools which cost a lot of money educational exclusion: children with special need do not have access, children from other countries attending schools are educationally excluded Greece
all spaces are used and have a function, too little open space for children and young people Restriction to enter in bars or discos because of colour of your skin Lack of chance to access higher education because of need to earn money No right to work for immigrants Austria
Ignorance of problems with addiction Corruption with employing and getting new projects separation, isolation black mailing Croatia
gentrification No open spaces between houses, cars, bars, shops and restaurants for young people Adults make kids go away Violence with violins (forced learning) too much after school work, music lessons, dancing lessons, sports lessons Germany
it is very easy for children and young people to buy alcohol and cigarettes The oil industry in our city does not respect human rights. We don’t have clean air, high level of pollution, high level of illnesses, cancer Russia
leisure time activities: financial, local, family reasons; -work: prejudices, stereotypes about Roma people, low qualification, they just finish school; information: get, understand and use them Slovakia
straying / wild animals very small salaries public administration doesn’t work Ukraine
Often young people have to stop studying after primary or secondary school, boys must work outside to earn money, girls most work at home and care for younger sisters and brothers Immigrant youth must get a job by 18, otherwise they are deported or they must be excellent at university (above standard which is required by Italians) Italy
Teenagers from Homes are socially excluded HIV excludes Roma people do not have access to schools, hospitals or equal rights No facilities for disabled people, they are not accepted by other for playing and socialising or even to be seen in the street Romania
Social exclusion because of hating each other Problems with employment Problems with and for Roma people Problems with people from villages Bosnia
Poverty, working class area, imigration, big municipality without adequate funds, no provision for children, no good public transport, unemployment no participation to a good and free (without costs) education Greece
in our area, the Youth Center is an old concret building, looks like a jail with destroyed windows, because the administration has no money to repair it Germany
Transport, infrastructure, environmental risk, health care, education, unemployment, earlier marriages Kosova
Immigrants: they live in very small places, can’t find easily work because many people can’t trust them Cyprus
lack of open spaces barriers between communities: “peace walls” Ireland
bad education system for minorities In rural areas is no access to information, infrastructure Slovenia
Police son are looked like bad persons, and this sons feel the fear and stress of parent. “North syndrome” No opportunities for employment because you live in the “wrong” neighborhood Spain refugees: no right to work , no right to an ID, no right to be recognised as refugees, no right to asylum, many stay in the streets, no access to education, no access to health system drug addicts, they don’t have access to detoxication programmes, no shelters for homeless, many live in the streets, cant find a job, they cant find money they cannot live with their families Greece
stigmatized: young Marokians who are living on centers out of city are in press cause violence acts and many people look them like violents, drug addicts,… so with that “stigma” they follow acting on expected way Spain
Just to say you live in Chelas is enough for discrimination, no access to medial services dental and private medicine is very expensive Portugal
Street child: asking people for money and giving it to their parents because they force them Refugees, migrants are exposed to racism, deprivation, exploitation no social care for homeless people and drug addicts Youth labelled as anarchist, mass arrest in open parks All youth groups are feared by the public opinion Greece
xenophobia children are not allowed by their parents to play or get close to migrant children health exclusion, immigrant families are excluded from health service if they have no legal documents and even if they have they are not treated equally Greece
Unemployed parents: you can’t join school trips, eat good food etc. disabled people: no possibilities to join community – school, theatre, buses etc… Youth from villages: no buses to reach the city, no activities for them; - Minorities: Roma, Russian; “Different”: “too” slow, fat, tall etc. Lithuania
expensive public transport no areas for kids to play very easy access to drugs not enough police Ukraine
Discrimination of Roma community: lack of medical care, transport, possibility to find job, administrative help, medical help, bar (not welcome), school discrimination, discrimination in the street, people of this community are at risk for human trafficking … Albania
Not having enough money makes people move to another part of the city, because the rents get more expensive parents, jobs, need for money, no time for kids, makes them sit in front of tv, computer… whole day schooling makes all kids stay at the same place the whole day. No choice where to play!!! Germany
Roma camp, they do not have access to water, to public transport, do not belong to a municipality no access to schools, very bad hygienic conditions, everywhere rubbish and it smells really bad, no refuse collection no access to school and health system Immigrants: came to Patra with boat and stay there because they don’t have enough money to travel or to go home Greece
2010
www.go-epa.org/en/congress-Thessaloniki